Whether you have an author website with a blog or without a blog, you will almost certainly have some “pages.” Pages are “static”, meaning they are informational pages, linked to from the “menu” bar at the top of your pages and posts, that only change once in a while if they need to be updated. (“Posts” on the other hand, are part of your blog, and as you create each new blog post, it is found at the top of your blog, and the older posts are pushed down below). This article (which is of course a blog post!) will discuss the different kinds of “pages” you might want to put on your website.

The following are the topics I’ll be covering more indepth in separate posts in this series; I’ll add links as I post them:

1. Is Author Blogging Dead?
2. Blog or Website or Both?
3. Social Media
4. Author Blogs
5. Connections and Audience
6. Content Tips
7. Goals
8. Layout
9. Types of Posts
10. Specific Pages
11. Promoting Your Blog
12. SEO
13. Ideas for Posts
14. E-Mail Newsletters
15. Author Blogs: My personal conclusions – and series resource list

AUTHOR WEBSITE PAGES

“Home” page: This can be one of two options. Either way, it will be your “landing page” where people enter your site when they use your URL (site address). Your home page is the “first impression” people receive when they go to your site (unless they are following a more complex link to a specific page or post), so you’ll want the home page to help them understand what the site is about, how to navigate it, and so on. As with other pages, you’ll want to check it from time to time to see if you need to tweak, update, or overhaul it. Hopefully, your home page is interesting enough that readers will be attracted to the full site and easily be able to check out other pages and posts in it.

Home page as introduction to the site: Some authors choose to have the “home” page as a page on which they provide basic information that describes the site. A good example is Fantasy and Science Fiction author T.A. White’s home page https://tawhiteauthor.com/ . On this page she shows all her different series, with photos of all her books, and links from each photo to pages with specific information on each book. Her home page also includes a short bio about her as an author, with a link to her “About” page which provides more information, plus a “Follow Me” link so readers can get email notifications when she updates her site (usually by adding to her blog). The page also includes reader reviews, links to things like a Glossary for the various worlds in her books; also, there is a sign-up link for her mailing list (email newsletter), and short introductions to her blog posts (which can also be located through the menu at the top of the page).

Home Page as Blog: Other authors choose to have their blog as their home (landing) page. You’ll notice that is the case on this site of https://normajhill.com/ . My URL brings you directly to my most recent blog post. If you want to see an older blog post on a particular topic, you can scroll down the right-hand column to the “Categories” button, click on it, and then scroll through the various categories to choose your interest, OR you can use the “Search” button OR (best option!!!) you can go to the menu at the top of the page and click on “Writing and Editing Articles” which will take you to a detailed table of contents, with posts listed in topical groups (or series groups), and links to each article. You’ll notice that my blog “home” page also includes things like a “Follow” button, a link to my Facebook page (which at the moment seriously needs updating…), and a “Blogroll” of my other sites plus sites I like. Each of my sites are set up somewhat differently on their home (blog) pages, as they all have different purposes and audiences.

“About” page: The about page is usually information about the author (unless you prefer to use your author site especially as a marketing site, in which case your “about” page might focus on your business/company). What might you include on your page about yourself?

• Your name, of course, along with a bio about your life, your interests, your accomplishments, your career, your skills… Tell your personal story, your personal “I”, to create a human connection to you as an author
• Links to your active social media platform(s), and, if you wish, a brief explanation of your focus and activities on those different platforms
• Your credentials and professional affiliations, as well as organizations you are involved with

Your “about” page is also a good place for press releases and media information, though you may alternatively have specific pages for those. As with your other pages, do bring this page up-to-date when there are changes in your life (yes, yes, yes, I need to do that! Yikes!).

“Site map” page: Not all sites have a site map, and if your site is simple, you may not need one. However, if your site contains a lot of information, you might want to consider adding one to help people explore your site. A friend of mine has been developing a fairly complex site https://reimaginerethinkcommunity.com/ about the topic of “community” and if you go there, you’ll notice that his menu, at the top of the page, next to the “blog” link, includes a “site map” button you can click on to find out all the items on the site. My site you’re on right now didn’t have a page like this when it started out, but as I wrote more and more blog posts on a fairly wide variety of writing and editing and related topics, I created a kind of “table of contents” which is linked to in the menu at the top of the page as a “Writing and Editing Articles” page, which divides the posts into sub-topics (and/or series), and provides links to each post.

“Sales” page: As an author site, you will probably be wanting to sell your books (and possibly, related products and services). You may decide to have a page specifically for this purpose, especially if you are selling directly from your site. Here is a good basic article on your options for doing that: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/hosting-service-small-ecommerce-business-59797.html If you prefer, you can provide links to online bookstores like Amazon, through which you can sell your books. You can do this from your special “sales” page, or you can link from your book pages. An in-between option is making direct sales through platforms connected to your site. You can find out more about that here: https://www.writtenwordmedia.com/adding-direct-sales-to-your-author-website/  If you decide to have a “sales” page, you’ll almost certainly want to include testimonials and reviews from satisfied customers.

“Book(s)” pages: If you have books to sell, you’ll no doubt want to include pages on your site that focus on each of your books (or at least on each of your series). See the T. A. White link above (under “Home” page) for really good examples of book pages! Are you wondering why I don’t have book pages on this site? It’s because my books are mostly educational and are therefore on my educational site (here, if you’re curious: https://penandpapermama.com/products/ … and yes, I need to update that too, oh my!). If you only have one or two books so far, you might like to check out this site by a new author, which combines Home, About, Sales, and Books on one page https://michaelvanexan.com/ It’s a good way to get started with an author website!

“Contact” page: You’ll almost certainly want a contact page so your site readers (and book readers who go to your site) can contact you. Most website/blog platforms provide a basic contact form you can use, or you can create your own, or you can do a search engine search for “website contact forms” and you’ll find many options you can use. Once you have your contact page and form set up, test it to see if emails are getting through (you can send one to yourself through the contact form—or ask someone else to try it out for you). If you change your contact information, of course you will need to update your contact page. Some people also include a phone number and/or snail-mail address, but if you’re going to do that, it might be wise to have a business phone number (other than your personal number) and a mailbox address (rather than your home address) for security purposes. Some people also include a location map on this page—again, probably best to avoid using your home, although you might have a map to your town and/or your personal business location if you have one.

“Policy” Page: The following are some of the items you might include on a “policy” page. Not all sites have a policy page, but look through this list and decide which of these items might be important for your own needs:

• Copyright information; creative commons license; what you’ll do if someone uses your content without permission
• Comments: what is acceptable (e.g. swearing? Family friendly? Trolls?); if you’ll reserve the right to delete or edit comments
• Content acceptance/guest posts: your ground rules; how people can submit guest post queries; topics you’re looking for; length of posts; self-promotion in guest posts; format; how guest posts will be accepted and credited
• Privacy and security: Think about this for yourself: what are you comfortable with in terms of personal privacy and security? What are your personal “boundaries”? Will you include personal photos, such as family pics, etc., on your site? How much personal information and what kind of lifestyle posts will you include?
• Marketing-related information: If you are using your site for marketing purposes (especially directly marketing your books and related products and services) you may need to consider the following:
  • Check out legal issues in your region
  • Disclose sponsor or affiliate status
  • Check the marketing rules for your site platform: if you are selling from your site (or even if you link to certain business sites), you may have to pay extra to “upgrade” your site to be a “business” rather than “personal” site. (I once linked to an interesting blog post on a commercial site, and my platform threatened to close down my whole site if I didn’t either remove the link or upgrade the site. I removed the link—it wasn’t important enough for me to pay extra to my platform, LOL!)
  • What kind of advertising will you accept? If you have a “free” site on a platform, you’ll most likely have to accept the advertising they place on it (and/or have to include the platform name in your URL). If you “upgrade” on the platform (pay extra!) you may be able to sell advertising on your site, in which case, you’ll need to decide what kind of advertising is acceptable. This article goes into detail about advertising on your site: https://bow-now.com/media/column/types-of-ads
  • If you have an email newsletter (aka mailing list) people sign up for (providing their address) or if you sell from your site and collect information like address, phone number, etc., you may need to let people know what kinds of personal information you are collecting, as well as how you use it and how people can contact you with concerns
  • Depending on where you live, you may need to provide information on “cookies” you use

“Testimonials/Reviews” page: You may want to include a specific page for testimonials and/or reviews from customers. Or you can include those on your book pages and/or your sales page.

“Photo gallery” page: Depending on your site’s purpose and audience, and the books you’ve written, you might want to include a photo gallery page. For example, if in researching your novel, you travel to the location where you “set” the story, you might take photos of the location that would be of interest to your readers. Or if you are writing a memoir, you might want to include photos of some of the people and events you describe (but get permission from those people first!). If you have given workshops related to your writing, you might want to post photos or videos from the event (if so, when taking photos/video, ask if there is anyone who doesn’t want to be seen in them; respect people’s privacy).

“Events” page: If you frequently are involved in events such as writing festivals or conferences, writing workshops, book launches, and so on, you might want to have a specific “events” page on which you include information on both upcoming events and on events you’ve previously been involved in. If you regularly offer workshops or other writing-related events, you might want to include a page about those (see the https://normajhill.com/workshops/ page on this site—and yes, it needs updating! I need to add the “Writing Through Grief and Loss” workshop I gave at a conference this past September, and a presentation I gave this week on “Blogging” for a local writers’ group…)

“Resume” page: If you have done a lot of related writing in your career(s) and/or have taken writing courses, you might want to include a page in resume form that focuses on those experiences. Or perhaps most of your writing is not books, but other formats of writing—or you have a writing-related business such as coaching writers, editing, and so forth. You might want to have pages for those as well (this site, for example, has “Writing Experience” and “Editing Experience” pages (which again need to be updated! Yikes!)

“FAQ” or Q&A” page: If you realize you receive frequently asked questions (FAQs) about your book(s) and/or other writing, or about your writing-related business and experiences, you might want to create a FAQ or Q&A page to provide answers to those questions. Occasionally, writers also include a Q&A page which is in the format (written or audio or video) of an interview; get someone to interview you about your writing-related activities and post it for readers to see. Video of their favorite author being interviewed is often of real interest to readers!

Other pages: Depending on the purpose of your site, you can of course include a variety of other pages. For example, I have a site https://penandpapermamatoo.com/ on which I have, over the years, posted a wide variety of examples of my writing (and my life!). It has a fairly comprehensive “menu” … and for almost every menu item, there are drop-down menus with links to specific poems, articles, stories, etc. So don’t worry …

Your author site is YOUR site and you can design it to reflect you and your writing life!

JUST ONE WARNING:

The more items (writing, audio, video, advertising, graphics, etc.) that you place on a particular page, the longer it will take for that page to “load” when people go to it. If it takes more than a very few seconds to load, a lot of people will just leave … and search engines do not like slow-loading pages, either, and may drop them farther down the search results.

WHAT’S NEXT? Think carefully about your purpose for your author site, and about your audience. Look through the suggestions above and check out some of the links. Which kinds of pages would work for you on your site? Consider adding at least one new page that would improve your site—today!

Don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments (you’ll find the “comments” link in the top left corner). What kinds of pages do you like when you go to other sites? What kinds of pages do you want to add (or remove!) from your site? Are there any other kinds of pages we should add to the list above? Thanks for your input!